Tag Archives: Teeth

By that, I mean yet another Southern Railway strike. So the alarm went off at 6.30am and I asked Shaun to check what state the trains were in. Amazingly, they were running fine. So that was good – after all, it’s meant to get worse (but now I’ve realised that’s next week when there are no services from here).

So that meant service as normal. I get up, get my shower, get ready for work. When I get out of the shower it’s H’s turn to get ready. We have our little routine.

She was part-dressed for school and already I was running late. She came running into the room tearfully.

“Mummy, I think my tooth is bleeding” she worriedly said.

It was. The one that wasn’t as wobbly as the other side, which isn’t meant to fall out until she’s 9-10 years old. The teeth next to the middle ones are pushing them out and her mouth isn’t big enough. I had that problem when I was young. (I would often delight in letting anyone know who called me a “big gob” that it actually wasn’t the case)

I asked if I could wobble it. Most of the time she’ll let me but this time she was quite upset. “OW! OW! OW! IT HURTS” she yelled. Conscious of the train being a bit late, but knowing that I had to get this train as they’re only going to get worse, I had to put the pressure on a bit.

So I tried to wobble enough to take it out. She cottoned on to what I was doing and clamped her mouth shut.

“I really can’t miss my train this morning” I told her. Then came up with a plan to take her to the dentist to get it taken out. “you’ll probably get an injection to do it” (jeez, why do I make up such nonsense? She’ll probably end up terrified of the dentist instead and it’s all my fault). Then passed on the responsibility to Shaun. Then took it back again.

H just looked a bit confused. But still clamped her mouth shut.

I asked her if she was likely to eat today, what with having two Very Wobbly teeth either side of her centre ones. She confirmed she wouldn’t be eating. So obviously as parent this asks for Very Drastic Measures.

“Can I wipe this blood off your tooth?” I asked, and she opened her mouth enough for me to get both my fingers in. I grabbed the tooth and pulled.

“AAAAAAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEAAAIIIAAAAAAEEEIIIEEE” she screamed. Followed by a very dramatic “Just kill me now!” repeated in a frantic manner. She’s seven, they do that kind of thing.

Anyway, result. The tooth was out. Now there was just the blood to deal with, consoling my daughter “I will NEVER trust you EVER again” and getting out the door in time for the train because who knows when the next one will be as Southern Railway are complete gits.

Several apologies and cuddles and telling her I felt really bad, but that I was happy she would be able to eat, and I was out of the door, the tooth firmly inside her Tooth Fairy Box.

THEN I remembered we might not have done anything with the elves, the bane of my December as I feel the least creative I ever have right now. Fortunately Shaun did something at 1am when he woke up on the settee (he keeps falling asleep there and I go up to bed at 11pm having two hours of snore-free time).

She ate well at school and all is good.

So it’s bedtime.

“I’ve decided. I want to keep my tooth” she informed me. “It’s really cool. It has a gap inside it, and this is my only chipped tooth so I want to write the Tooth Fairy a letter to ask her to leave it” I confirmed all her teeth were like that, and why not write a letter ready for the next tooth which will be left (as it’s only a matter of days) and just GO TO SLEEP. Oh and that the Tooth Fairy might only give her half the money if she has to keep it. H wasn’t having any of it, because she knows about the Tooth Fairy. Apparently the fairy comes past every single night to check for missing teeth.

“I’m so clever I could pretend to sleep and you will fall for it” she told me. Obviously she’s right. I heard her get up when I’d left her snoozing. Clever monkey.

So tonight I have to remember to do something creative with the elves (yes, we have two. WHY?!), leave money from the Tooth Fairy and take away the tooth (she’ll lose it, surely? Then I won’t have a complete set) Then again, as I asked on Facebook, what exactly am I going to do with an entire set of milk teeth that belong to my daughter? Other than it feels weird keeping them but wrong to throw them away.

It’s bloody hard being a parent sometimes and having to remember all the lies.

H lost her wobbly tooth. The next one isn’t far off. She’s happy about this as someone she really looks up to at school has lost four teeth, so she feels like she’ll be “just like her”

We’re switching swimming lessons. H will have her last class in yellow hats next week, moving to the pool closer to where we live. It’s a bit more expensive, but there’s only four in a class, plus I can go to the gym or have a swim while she’s in there, which works out nicely for me.

H moved up a book band at school – she’s now on the white band – just lime to go and she’s a free reader. I find this incredible – she isn’t even five and a half yet, but she devours books and reads them again and again, loving the stories. To celebrate I did what any good mum would do, and gave her another paperback book to read. She disappeared upstairs, engrossed in it from the start. Phew!

We’re hitting party season again – with one a weekend. I’d set a rule of only doing one thing a weekend so we could do something as a family, and so far we’re keeping this up. I bought Oliver on DVD which I think we’ll watch after school tomorrow as H has never seen it, which leaves Sunday to do something nice. Saturday is a drop off and go party too, and is THREE WHOLE HOURS. I don’t know what to do. Probably get a fringe cut in my hair or something.

H and I are going to see The Sound of Music in Wimbledon in April. I am possibly more excited about this than she is – but it’s a day out for both of us while Shaun gets out of it as he’s got his accounts year end. The tickets arrived today, so it’s REALLY HAPPENING!

H has been really pushing it lately. Last weekend her iPad was confiscated, and after a while she was really missing it. “Daddy, please will you get me my iPad? I’ll give you some pocket money!” she told him. He didn’t.

We went to Ikea on Sunday. H is hilarious to shop with, she’ll pick something up and say “ooooh this is nice” – and sure enough, she chose a blanket. I asked her how much it was, to which she replied “oh, it’s twelve pounds” – I pointed out she doesn’t have enough pocket money, and her response? “Oh well, I’ll just have to save up then!”

We all have coughs. Niggly ones, nothing which feels like my back will go (please please please don’t). H has got out of the habit of putting her hand over her mouth and I’m the kind of nagging mummy who makes sure she does. “after all, we don’t want you to share your cold, do we?” I reasoned. “But mummy, it’s not fair. I don’t want this cold all on my own. You and daddy could share it too then it won’t be so bad?” – I like the reasoning, but of course this is not correct. We all have it the same. SIGH.

I’m in the process of planning H’s bedroom and better storage. We’ve kept a lot of her toys from Christmas upstairs – ones that were moved out of the way to make room for the tree. We’ve kind of grown to like this space. It just happens that I spotted this post over at Bex’s The Adventure of Parenthood which has some great affordable cabin beds (and a giveaway) – which has got me thinking. So many of those toys could go in her room, it’s just whether she’d fall out of bed. She hasn’t done it for a while now, to be fair.

We have Premium Merlin passes. Shaun’s mum gave us money for them as our Christmas present – and we’ve already been to Chessington to check it out. It was freezing. When it’s a bit warmer we’ll go again, and of course Legoland will be getting a visit. In the meantime there’s The London Eye and Aquarium to visit again, so we’re not complaining. I haven’t been to Madame Tussauds for a few years now either….

Other than that, we’re just plodding along. Feeling healthier. Being healthier. Shaun is running again, still off dairy and healthy. I’m back in the gym again, 31 years a vegetarian and kind of healthy. H is just H, amazing me every day and having the guts to face doing things she’s scared about – my little girl. Occasional monster – though that’s usually when she’s screaming at me about something.

We have the Very Wobbly Tooth at the moment, with an imminent removal from its current premises (i.e. the space next to the tooth which is forcefully pushing it out).

She has taken to tricking me. I’ll ask her every day “how is the tooth?” and she’ll do the slightly bored “still there, still wobbly” line.

That is until tonight. Mid-way through our evening meal she stopped, gasped, and stuck her tongue in the space where it lives.

“HAVE YOU LOST YOUR TOOTH!” I exclaimed excitedly.

“tricked yaaaaa!” she replied, while almost falling off her chair with laughter. This wouldn’t be so bad but she got me another couple of times with exactly the same thing. Little monkey. The tooth remains in place, as the new addition pushes it out that little bit more. Tomorrow, maybe…

We skipped the wobbly tooth stage for H’s first extraction. She had an infection in her gum which resulted in an extraction in hospital by injection. For the last year and a half we’ve lived with the front tooth missing – it’s fine, we’re all used to it.

In the back of my mind I’ve known that the rest will start to want to vacate her mouth when they’re good and ready. Had we not had this first extraction I’m pretty sure we’d have a full mouth of strong milk teeth – but that is exactly what we don’t have. We’re only missing the one tooth, mind.

Every night after tea she’ll take some fruit upstairs to read a book with – the current book is Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’ which she’s enjoying, she’ll settle on my bed all propped up and read and eat.

Until tonight. There was a painful cry from upstairs. My little girl took up a plum. Took a big bite of the plum, her bottom tooth bumping into the stone. Very painful.

It’s calming down, but I checked her teeth just in case – make sure we know which one hurted. The tooth did a wobble. A proper wobble. H found it painful, so I checked all the other teeth around it just to be on the safe side, and they were all fine – just the one.

She looked sort of heartbroken, a wobbly tooth. Slightly scared. I had to give her a big smile, a huge cuddle and a pep talk about how it’s absolutely fine for this to happen and just to be careful eating – maybe eat using her side teeth a bit more for a day or two.

I did suggest getting in touch with the tooth fairy, and saying how we don’t want the money and would like to keep the tooth as we want to make a necklace. I think she liked the idea…. it made her laugh anyway.

Oh no. I know what’s wrong with H’s front tooth now. The picture of the four of them from almost two weeks ago started the niggle again – her front tooth is becoming more discoloured again – more obviously so.

When she had chicken pox a spot developed in the inside of her mouth. I checked today and it was still there – I wasn’t even thinking straight – why have I not checked before. It’s obvious now – and a google image check confirmed it.

She’s got an abscess.

This means several things. Trips to the dentist. Antibiotics (maybe) or just extraction.

I’ve already told her this could happen. She’s quite excited about meeting the tooth fairy. I’m just sort of sad inside she’ll be the first one in her peer group with a (potential) missing front tooth. That and it will take another 2-3-4 years before the adult ones grow. On the plus side, removal now would mean any abscess won’t create problems for the older tooth – and she’s not in pain. But I know that’s what it is. This is her fourth month of having it, and where it used to look like a blister, it’s now much more solid.

I’m not doing a very good job of it. Today it hurts again – not badly, in a kind of I know I need to rest kind of way – it sucks having a back that hurts almost all the time.

H’s bed finally arrived today. They took it upstairs and all I did was unpacked it – nothing too strenuous – but somehow in the middle of the afternoon the dull ache started again. Hopefully it’ll pass with plenty of rest but I’m still SO wary of it getting worse. Stupid back.

(I have to also add, I was convinced it wasn’t going to be delivered today – then the call arrived at 9.30, letting me know the bed was due between 10.30 – 12.30 – and by the time 12.05 came along I’d started to convince myself the call was in fact one of my friends winding me up and wasn’t really Dreams, so fair do’s, it’s here and it’s comfy and H has space to sleep in again)

Anyway, the big girl bed is made, her room looks so much smaller, it needs some serious reorganising this weekend and hopefully that’s how things will stay (though I’m predicting now that we’ll end up moving the computer into her room and she’ll get the front bedroom – give it a month or so).

Weightwatchers is going very well indeed – though I’m having an odd week this week. Part of one of my rear molars fell out when I had some Burgen Bread when I was pregnant, so I had a filling – the kind which are for private patients, apparently. It feels loose – it feels like it’s not right. I’m holding off as long as possible going to the dentist, but in turn this means I’m not eating like I normally would. I’m making sure my food is soft and I’ve lost my appetite a bit. I’m hardly hitting my daily points, and on just week three that seems a bit quick – but almost definitely down to my dodgy tooth. Payday is in a week and a half so if it can hold out that long… if I can hold out that long, then that’s good.

I can’t quite get my head around the fact it’s October. I had washing out on the line today – much as I did last October.. and November. It feels so mild apart from at night – I know we held off putting on our heating until November last year, so all being well we’ll manage another month. We do sit under a rug in front of the tv now, proper oldies. Not a slanket though…